The Florida Scholastic Hockey League concluded its third successful season April 22 with an awards presentation at Douglas High School. The event included a guest appearance by Florida Panthers' radio analyst and former defenseman Randy Moller. The Panthers Alumni Association, represented by Moller, donated a check to the league for $5,000. Moller, host of the Panthers Tonight radio show, said that the Panthers alum were going to double their commitment to the league. He announced that the Alumni Association plans to create scholarships for both in-line and ice hockey players.

He played baseball until he was well beyond his prime. Played the game on surgically scarred and swollen knees at 41, and hated asking for a day off even after his right knee refused to bend one day on artificial turf, leaving him standing there helpless, his leg locked in severe pain as a ball rolled past him. Andre Dawson didn't want to stop even then, at the worst moment of his two painful seasons he spent with the Marlins in 1995-96. That's the kind of athlete he was, teammates said.

Preston de Ibern could only smile up from his wheelchair and attempt to focus on the tearful adults standing over him, not comprehending that a law to keep other children from near-drownings will be named for him. After the House voted 109-8 for the bill on Friday, Preston met Gov. Jeb Bush, who committed to signing a bill that requires new pool owners to pick a way to keep unsupervised children out of the water. It ended three years of legislative haggling by sponsor Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and four years of lobbying by Preston's mother.

Preston Wilson connects squarely with a batting-practice pitch and rockets the ball on a low arc toward the right-center field gap at Space Coast Stadium. It climbs and climbs, slicing to the right and still soaring, finally dropping from the sky and bouncing off the metal roof of a building beyond the fence. Most right-handed hitters could only dream of hitting a ball to that area, 400-plus feet the other way. "Touch `em all, Pres," says Marlins special assistant Andre Dawson, squinting into the sun as he watches the ball.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Ladson Marvin Preston was in jail, thinking about how he was forced to miss the celebration of the man who, to him, represented freedom. What he didn't know on Monday, he said, is that he could have gone free three days earlier. After further police investigation, the State Attorney's Office officially dropped the homicide and attempted homicide charges against Preston on Thursday. On Jan. 14, Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Padowitz determined the evidence did not justify keeping Preston in jail without bond, he said in his office.

Dear Ann Landers: I usually agree with your advice, but you were out to lunch with your response to "Preston," the brother-in-law who shot the family dog. Apparently, Preston's young son tried to take a ball away from the cocker spaniel, and the dog nipped him. Preston then shot the family pet. You assumed that Preston thought the children were in danger of being seriously mauled, otherwise, he would never have done such a thing. Ann, cocker spaniels don't maul. Pit bulls, yes, but not cocker spaniels.

Newly signed wide receiver/return specialist Roell Preston is still trying to figure out how he could go from the Pro Bowl in February to unemployment at the start of the regular season. Preston earned a trip to Hawaii last season as a special teams player, registering three returns for touchdowns for Green Bay. But Preston wasn't re-signed by the Packers and failed to find a team until signing with Tennessee in September. He lasted two games with the Titans before being released. "I don't know how often you see a guy get to the Pro Bowl and then the next season he tries to get a job," said Preston, whose biggest liability was his fumbling (seven last season and two in one playoff game)

The Dolphins, seeking depth in their return game, on Monday signed Roell Preston, who went to the Pro Bowl last season as the NFC's returner after an impressive season with Green Bay. After a game in which Brock Marion returned five kickoffs for 141 yards with a long of 58 yards and Nate Jacquet returned four punts for 86 yards with a long of 45 yards, coach Jimmy Johnson decided to release offensive lineman Mike Sheldon and sign Preston. Preston played in two games this season with Tennessee.